Albany Jews helped Muslim refugees from Afghanistan

Rabbi Dan Ornstein of Ohav Shalom challenged his congregation to put a Torah passage into action: "Welcome the stranger and remember you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

The Torah verses described enslaved Israelites liberated with God's help during their exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The epic immigrant journey to freedom is celebrated in the Jewish feast of Passover that begins April 22.

"We decided we wanted to do something to help that went beyond just talking about the refugee crisis, " recalled Ohav Shalom member Sandy Cohen, a retired social worker from Glenmont who organized volunteers.

It developed into a wonderful exchange between Ohav Shalom members and a large, extended family of refugees from Afghanistan. The Afghans — including a single mother with eight children whose husband was killed by terrorists — fled Taliban fighters who attacked their homes in the Khost province of eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.

After three years in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, they were granted visas as asylum-seekers. They were resettled through the Albany field office of U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. The first group of 18 Afghan family members arrived in February and another 17 are expected soon.

They escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The Ohav Shalom members sprang into action. Dozens of volunteers collected and transported donations of furniture, bedding, kitchen goods, dishes, household supplies and cash that they used to buy groceries and other items to furnish four Albany apartments rented with the help of USCRI.

"I asked my students to imagine what it would feel like if they had to leave their home and everything they knew and come to a new place where they didn't know the language or customs," said Judith Avner, a member of Ohav Shalom and Hebrew teacher at B'Yachad.

Avner is among a dozen members from the synagogue who will serve as volunteer mentors for the Afghan refugees.

Second-grade students from B'Yachad Hebrew School in Albany made welcome signs to brighten up the new apartments of Afghan refugee families, which members of Ohav Shalom in Albany fully furnished with donations and volunteer labor (Photo courtesy of Judith Avner)

From left, Afghan refugees Abdul Sami Shayeq, 25, Babark Haidari, 22, and Sayeed Ahmad Noor, 36, talk about their long, difficult journeys from their embattled homeland and being resettled in Albany with the help of volunteers from Ohav Shalom in Albany. (Paul Grondahl / Times Union)

"It's been a very humbling and meaningful experience for our congregation," Avner said. "It showed how welcoming we are in Albany. We haven't been caught up in the destructive political rhetoric."

"Welcoming the stranger is a core concept of Judaism," said Rabbi Rena Kieval, the congregation's other rabbi. "It was wonderful to see how the members of our synagogue turned empathy into action."

Dorah Rosenzweig, an Ohav Shalom member who works for the state Office of General Services, spends Sunday afternoons with the mother and her eight children, ages 5 through 18. She taught them how to use a laundromat and other unfamiliar things. She helps the kids, who attend Albany public schools, with homework.

"The teenage daughter told me what surprised her most was that each one of them got their own bed," Rosenzweig said. "She couldn't get over that. We take so many things for granted."

The kids were elated when she took them to a nearby playground. "They couldn't believe there was a playground that was free and open to them," she said.

A cousin who arrived with them is Babark Haidari, 22. He had to suspend his college studies after the Taliban invaded Khost province. His uncle, father and other relatives were killed by the Taliban. He fled to the refugee camp in Pakistan. He hopes to find a laborer's job in Albany that doesn't require English skills. He misses his mother's cooking, especially mantu, a savory Afghan steamed dumpling with ground beef, onions, garlic and turmeric.

"I want to make a new life here," Haidari said. Fellow Afghan refugee Sayeed Ahmad Noor, 36, translated Pashto into English. Noor arrived on a special immigration visa, or SIV, because he assisted international aid organizations in Kandahar, including the U.N. and Red Cross. Noor and his wife have two sets of twins, ages 2 and 6. They live in Albany and receive $2,100 in monthly federal assistance that lasts only for four months. "I'm worried about making enough money to get by," said Noor, who interviewed for a $9-an-hour call center job.

"We're thankful for all the help we've received," said Noor, who rides around the city on a donated bicycle.

"The support from Ohav Shalom volunteers has been tremendous," said Jill Peckenpaugh, director of USCRI. The group will resettle a record 500 refugees in 2016, a 25 percent increase from a typical year. The first Syrian refugees are expected this year. "We always need more volunteers. It's an enriching and bonding experience on both sides."

The Afghans have expressed their gratitude for Ohav Shalom's help. The fact that the refugees are Muslim was an unexpected lesson in shared humanity.

"That's a beautiful part of the story," Cohen said. "The Afghans brought our congregation together in a special way. It will help improve Jewish-Muslim relationships in the long term."

"We never thought of them as Muslims," Rosenzweig said. "They're people in need and we live in a land of plenty. Surely, we can give them some help."

They met their rabbi's challenge and welcomed the strangers, they who were once strangers themselves.

Paul Grondahl is an award-winning journalist and author. He was named director of the New York State Writers Institute in 2017.

Grondahl has been a staff writer at the Albany Times Union since 1984, where his assignments have taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica; from Northern Ireland to Africa; from New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina and Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010; and across New York State, from Ground Zero on 9/​11 to the Adirondack wilderness.

His in-depth newspaper projects on domestic violence, death and dying, mental illness in state prisons and the problems facing sub-Saharan Africa have won a number of local, state and national journalism awards.